Chapter 23: Evil Dread


Reviews:

Phenomenal Ultra Instinct: Sierra isn't quite the worst TD character, but she's pretty bad.

QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless: Yeah, Sierra had to go sometime and I had no plans left for her. Putting the challenge on Boney Island seemed like a fairly obvious move; with no radioactive waste on Wawanakwa, it just wouldn't fit the challenge. Once I decided on having two giant spiders instead of one to compensate for the larger cast, having Max control one of them seemed like the natural move. As for the spider suit, it would be very cumbersome for any vampire hunter who has less of a natural feel for it than Izzy. Even Izzy wasn't wearing it when she took out the other vampires on Boney Island, and the one she fought while wearing it got away. Yes, everyone will most certainly have nightmares.

Gucci Mane LaFlare: Thank you. I was worried people would think Sierra as written me was Sierra in name only. And recap/theme isn't really necessary for a fanfic. It's necessary for the actual show to ensure the viewers know what happened if they miss an episode, but here, you can easily just go back and read the previous chapter. Including it would feel like padding.

TDFan: Never thought you didn't like Sam. It was honestly hard for me to write Sierra as more likable than canon and I wasn't even sure I could do it (though unlike with Dave, I was actually willing to try). The review is not particularly long, and you have nothing to apologize for.

Lone Wolf: Thanks. Yes, I gave Sammy a relationship with Brick. But because I can't write romance to save my life, it's sort of out of focus right now.

Magmahound: I wouldn't say perfect. But thanks anyway.

Knifez: Eh, no hard feelings. I'm glad neither Sierra nor Izzy will be missed too badly. Hope I can keep up the suspense.


Teams:

Gophers: B, Beth, Brick, Heather, Jasmine, Katie, Sammy

Bass: Courtney, DJ, Lindsay, Scarlett, Scott, Topher, Tyler

Moose: Cameron, Harold, Leshawna, Lightning, Noah, Owen, Shawn

Badgers: Alejandro, Bridgette, Duncan, Geoff, Sky, Trent, Zoey


The episode opened on Zoey drawing in her sketchbook. Duncan looked over her shoulder, and asked, "What are you drawing?"

The camera showed the sketchbook, showing Brick next to a recognizably nonhuman figure, with stats and a short paragraph next to them. At the top of the page were the words, "Army of Me." "Hmm? Oh, well, I'm a big fan of Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, and I thought it might be interesting to try to draw some of the competitors here as Stand users." She flipped through the sketchbook, and showed a few other campers with Stands, as well as Shawn with what looked like electricity surrounding him.

"Shawn doesn't get a Stand?" Duncan asked.

"Well, I thought about it," Zoey said. "But Shawn's obsession with the undead made me think, 'Hamon user.' And most people can't use both."

Duncan gave her a confused look. "I'll just assume I need to read the comic to understand."

Zoey shrugged. "It's not that weird. Stands are spirit projections that all have some sort of supernatural power that only other people that can use them can see, and Hamon is solar energy generated by proper breathing that kills undead monsters and can allow its users to walk on water." She then frowned. "I take it back. It is that weird."

Duncan nodded. "Definitely sounds like it."

"I actually have the entire collection," Zoey told him. "I'll lend it to you. It's pretty awesome."

"Do you have any more of those drawings where Chris gets tortured the way he tortures us?" Duncan asked.

Zoey showed him a drawing of Sam making Chris do the various drills from the boot camp challenge, and one of Chris webbed up with Sierra in a spider costume. "Finished that one this morning."

Duncan laughed at the images. "Nice."


At breakfast, Scott, Courtney, and DJ were the last to arrive at the Mess Hall, significantly muddied. "Any luck?" DJ asked the others.

"No," said Scott. "We looked all over, but no sign of those stupid immunity statues!"

Courtney wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was looking around the cafeteria. She enviously stared at Harold teaching Leshawna how to play Yu-Gi-Oh, at Lindsay and Tyler making out, at Geoff and Bridgette telling each other jokes, and Brick telling Sammy a very obviously embellished story of his time in military school. She then glared daggers at Scarlett.


Confessional: Courtney

"I get that we're not in a good position, but I really wish I could actually spend some time with my new boyfriend. Yeah, I've spent time with him, but mostly just with DJ and Sam."

End confessional


"Attention, campers!" Chris's voice came over the loudspeaker. "It's challenge time!"


The scene cut to the beach, where the beach was sectioned off into four sections, with a raised platform in the middle of each, on which the teams were standing. On the side opposite the lake, there was a platform where Chris and Chef were sitting on deck chairs. "Bonjour, mes campers!" Chris said, in a pathetic attempt at a French accent.

"Campeurs," Cameron corrected the host's pronunciation. "And why the French, anyway?"

"I was feeling whimsical!" Chris defended. "For your challenge today, our interns have buried 3D puzzle pieces all over the beach, seven per team." As he spoke, the camera panned over the beach. "Find all your pieces to form a statue. Last to finish gets sent to the Campfire Ceremony."

"And let me guess, they're all statues of you?" Noah asked.

"I wanted to make them all statues of me," Chris admitted. "But the producers said there hadn't been enough mental challenges. So they're all cubes in your team colors. Happy?"

Noah smiled. "Actually, yes! It's about time we had a non-physical challenge! When even was the last one?"

"Last challenge," Chris said. "The Boney Island scavenger hunt."

"Doesn't count, it was a race," Noah told him.

"Then in that case, leechball," Cameron said. "Before that, it was the Brunch of Disgustingness, and before that, the Capture the Flag challenge. We also had the Awake-a-Thon, the talent show, the Truth or Scare challenge, and the Phobia Factor challenge."

Upon getting a few odd looks, he shrugged. "What? This show was the first time I ever left my house. Of course I'm going to remember details like that."

"You've adapted well. It's easy to forget sometimes," Harold commented.

"Anyway," Chris said, hoping to get the conversation back on track, "The Gophers won the last challenge, so they get shovels to dig with." Two interns tossed the Gopher team shovels, which most of them managed to catch, but Katie got hit in the head by hers and fell on her back. "The rest of you will just have to use your hands, I guess. Also, you have to build the statue on the platform. Which is going to be challenging because of the moats." Scarlett looked nervously over the edge, only for Courtney to "accidentally" shove her off the platform. Some of the sand around the platform collapsed beneath her.

"Which are filled with crabs," Chris finished. Scarlett shrieked as she struggled out of the moat.

"No big thing, for Light-o-ning!" Lightning exclaimed as he jumped off the platform. The moment he landed on the sand, a board sprang up and hit him in the head. He staggered backward, and fell into the moat.

"And you might want to watch out for booby traps in the sand," added the host belatedly.


The camera cut to the Gophers in a quick huddle. "Alright," said both Jasmine and Heather at the same time. "We should-"

"Um, what are you doing?" Heather asked.

"I was thinking we should split up the area into sectors, and each take one," Jasmine said.

"That won't work very well," Heather countered. "If we do that, it's easy to dig in the same place twice within the sectors, because keeping track of where you dug isn't that easy. We should start at the platform and dig in rings around it."

"And how are we supposed to really work together for that?" Jasmine argued. "We'd get in each other's way."

B took his text-to-speech device out of his coat. "Then maybe we should start at the platform and dig outwards. Our platform is in the center, so if we each take a 51.5 degree angle, we can cover our entire area."

"And what if the pieces are all close to the edge?" Heather challenged.

"Oh, quit arguing. We don't need a plan for digging, sillies," Katie said affably. She walked over to the lake, and started digging in the water.

The other six stared at her. "Better make it a 60 degree angle," Heather said.


Confessional: Heather

"Well, if it comes down to it, I'm not worried about being eliminated over Katie. Not tonight, at least. Not in a challenge that requires even a little bit of brains."

Confessional: Katie

"Why would we need a plan for digging? That's just silly."

End confessional


Over at the Bass section, as the team was leaping down, Scarlett shoved Courtney into the moat. Scott glared at her, but visibly restrained himself.

Scarlett then noticed that the rest of her teammates were just digging in random places. "What are you imbeciles doing?" she shouted. "We can't just start digging in random places. We need to dig from the edges inward."

"If you say so," DJ said. Scott helped Courtney out of the moat, and the seven split in different directions.


On the Moose team, Lightning dug up a rectangular purple object that went to a point at the end. "Sha-catch!" he shouted, tossing the object, hitting Harold in the head. Fortunately, the object didn't land in the moat. Unfortunately, Harold did. "Ah, my nuggets!" he shouted.

Noah, who had been standing next to him, tossed the object onto the platform. "Hey, be more careful!"


Trent abandoned a hole he was digging to dig elsewhere, only to fall when he failed to notice his pants had fallen to his ankles. He glared behind him at Duncan, who was chuckling.

"Dude, not funny!" he shouted.

"Says you," said Duncan. "I happen to think it was very funny."

Trent put his hand on the ground to push himself up, but hesitated. He started digging, and unearthed a bit of purple. He and Duncan then started digging furiously until they unearthed the whole piece. Duncan gave Trent a triumphant smirk, and Trent scowled and refused to meet his gaze.


Confessional: Duncan

"And you thought bullying never paid off."

End confessional


Tyler was digging furiously, and making good time as well. However, he heard a snap, and saw a bear trap (fortunately, without teeth) around his wrist. He screamed and ran backwards, while trying to get the trap off of his wrist. He accidentally backed into the Gopher area, tripped, and fell, revealing a green object. He got back up and backed back into the Bass area, still screaming. He tripped again, revealing a red object, then got up and kept going backward. He suddenly stopped screaming, and said, "Hey, I got it off!" Then he fell into the moat with the crabs. Nearby members of the two teams rushed to dig the revealed pieces up.

The camera shifted to Chris, who said, "Two booby traps! Four puzzle pieces! And four deliciously evil moats! It's still anyone's game, but it won't be for long!"


"An hour has passed, and the score is still tied at one all, which raises a pertinent question," Chris said quietly. Then he raised his voice. "What is taking so long?" Several complaints about the lack of shovels or the sun were aimed at him in response, which he ignored. "Blah blah blah, whine whine whine," he parroted. "Hurry up! I have dinner plans!"

Topher uncovered another piece of the puzzle. "And Topher finds another piece, putting his team into the lead!" he said, in a hostly voice. He picked it up and ran it to the platform.

"And that's two for the Bass!" Chris announced. "Finally, we're making some progress!"

Over in the Moose team's area, Harold abandoned a hole he was digging to start digging elsewhere, and accidentally set off another springboard trap. He flew in an arc over to the lake, and landed hard on the Boat of Losers which was there for some reason.

"To be fair, when we tested that, the boat wasn't there," Chris said.

"As if you tested that thing," Chef replied.


The show went to a timeskip. Sky found a piece, then Beth found one. Tyler found a wasp's nest, and he got stung several times. Chris laughed as the wasps chased him into the lake.

Lindsay found a piece of the puzzle, then Leshawna found one. Brick found what he thought was a piece, but it was actually a box full of candy wrappers. "Chris!" he shouted.

"What?" Chris asked. When he saw the box of wrappers, he said, "So I had the interns bury a box of candy wrappers. What's the issue here?" Brick just scowled at him, and walked over to Chris's platform. He dropped the box in the trash can next to Chef's chair, then returned to work.

"Honestly, some people," he said quietly.


Sky was digging, and a boxing glove shot out of the ground and hit her in the groin. Chris frowned. "Not who I wanted to get hit by that trap," he commented.

Chef shrugged. "At least it hit someone."


Heather found a large piece of her team's cube. "Katie, stop being useless and help me with this!" she shouted.

"Oh! Okay!" Katie said. She ran over and helped Heather lift the piece out of the ground. The two of them carried it over to the platform and managed to get it onto it, but they lost their balances and fell into the moat.


Cameron noticed a lump in the sand. He stared at it for a few seconds before hesitantly touching it. Clothing burst out of it, most of which clearly belonged to Chef, but there was some women's underwear in the load.

"Eww! Chef's dirty laundry! Pretty stink-ay!" Chris shouted.

Cameron, frowning, shouted to his teammates, "Could you give me a hand with this?" With the help of Harold and Shawn, he dug a bit further, and pulled a small air cannon out of the sand. "Perfect." He then started messing with the air cannon.


The show timeskipped again, with the teams each finding a few pieces. Cameron effectively managed to convert the air cannon into a blower, and gave it to Shawn to use. It quite effectively blew the sand away, and uncovered multiple pieces of the puzzle much faster than the campers digging by hand.


The timeskip ended with the Moose having six pieces, the Badgers and Gophers with five, and the Bass with four.

"Hey, I found another one!" shouted DJ, and he rushed it over to the platform.

Scott stood at the border between the Bass's area and the Gophers'. He noticed a slight lump just over the border. He checked to make sure nobody was watching, and then reached over and dug it out. It was a small piece, so he was able to get it out of the ground easily. He dropped it in the hole he had dug, and swept the pile of sand that had previously inhabited it into said hole over the puzzle piece.


Confessional: Scott

"I really can't afford to lose this challenge. I know that if there's a vote, it's going to be me, Courtney, or DJ. I need to buy some time. Those immunity idols are well-hidden, but sooner or later, I'll find one. Then, it's good-bye, Schemin' Scarlett. But first, I need to not lose this challenge, by any means necessary."

End confessional


Jasmine had not noticed Scott dig out the puzzle piece, but she did see him sweep the sand into the hole. "Ay, what're you doing there, ya hoon?" she demanded.

"Digging," Scott replied.

"Don't try to bull[bleep] me, mate. I saw you fill that hole with sand," Jasmine said.

In an attempt to bluff, Scott took on the most condescending tone his voice was capable of creating. "You see, there was a pile of sand right here," he said, as he pointed to the spot that the sand had been in. "And I wanted to dig under it. But I couldn't, because there was a pile of sand in the way. So, I moved it."

Jasmine gave him the most skeptical look her face was capable of holding. Then she dug up the puzzle piece, and gave him a look that said, "I don't know whether to be mad, or just disappointed."

Scott shrugged. "It was worth a shot."


"I found the last one!" Owen shouted, holding up a yellow, L-shaped block.

"Up here!" Harold, who had already begun work on the cube, shouted back. Once Owen had thrown him the piece, he cracked his knuckles. "Now, observe my mad puzzle-solving skills." Within two minutes, he had finished assembling the cube, all the while humming the Tetris theme.

"And the Moose win!" Chris announced. "Really disappointed that I'm not looking at a statue of me right now, but hey, at least Harold's obscure talents came in handy for once."

"Hey, I'm talented! Gosh!" Harold protested. "You just don't appreciate my Mad Skillz."

"Well, the race for first has been decided, now it's the race for anything but last," Chris announced.


The next few minutes were a rush. The next person to find a piece of the puzzle was Zoey. Upon her announcing that she had found a piece, Alejandro said, "I had best get started on assembling our puzzle."

Topher found a piece next, and handed it off to Scarlett. "Just one more, guys!"

The three remaining teams rushed to find the last piece of each of their respective puzzles. After several seconds of tension (which may have been edited down), the three teams each found the last piece at almost the same time. Sammy found her team's first, at the corner of her team's area. Tyler found his a second later, closer to the center but still multiple feet away. Bridgette found hers at almost the same time, at almost the same distance.

Geoff wasted no time. "Give it to me!" he shouted, and grabbed the piece and ran to the platform as fast as he could. This led to the unfortunate and unintended consequence of him falling into the moat, but he managed to throw it to Alejandro before doing so.

Tyler, at the same time, raced Geoff to get the piece to Scarlett first. However, he was overenthusiastic, and he accidentally threw the piece into the crab-filled moat. When he had gotten closer, Scarlett stared at him. "Well?"

Tyler, to his credit, wasted no time in reaching into the moat. He fished the piece out of the moat, but while he was doing so, Chris announced, "And the Badgers get second place!"

Sammy was getting close to the platform, but it looked like it wouldn't be enough. Ignoring the crabs latched onto his arm, Tyler fished the piece out of the moat, climbed up onto the platform, and slammed the piece into the corner where it was clearly supposed to go...causing the cube to partially fall apart.

"Tyler, you imbecile!" Scarlett shouted, just as Chris announced, "And the Gophers take the bronze! Bass, one of your fishy butts is going home tonight!"


"Guys, I know I messed up, but please don't vote me out!" Tyler begged his three alliance-mates.

Scarlett sighed. "Tyler, we aren't going to vote you out. As much as you might deserve it for your abysmal performance today, our majority is too valuable to discard."

"Exactly," Topher said. "There's only one option for elimination tonight: DJ."

"DJ?" Tyler asked. "I mean, I'm glad it's not me, but why DJ? He's cool!"

"Yeah," Lindsay agreed. "Scooter and Corrine aren't very nice, but even though TJ is friends with them, he's always really nice."

Scarlett looked thoughtful. "I would actually like to hear your reasoning as well, Tyler."

"Look, guys, I know game shows like this," Topher defended. "Right now, the eliminations are getting pretty predictable for each team. Pretty soon, Chris is going to merge the teams just to nip that in the bud. And when that happens, DJ is the biggest potential threat. I can't think of anyone who dislikes him, and he's going to have an easy time making allies. We have to get rid of him, now."

After a brief pause, Scarlett nodded. "All right, you have convinced me. DJ it is."

The four of them went their separate ways. A short time later, DJ happened upon Topher. "Hey, man. How are you?"

"Definitely not happy about Sierra's elimination," Topher responded. "But I'm just going to have to keep going. I just have to win this game, then I can make all her dreams come true."

"I gotcha," DJ said. "So, you decided on who's going home tonight?"

Topher didn't answer. He just looked at him. DJ realized what Topher meant. "Oh."

"Don't take it personally," Topher told him. "You're just the biggest potential threat on the team. I can't afford not to vote you out."

"Well, I guess I'll take that as a compliment," DJ said nervously.

"A twisted, warped compliment, but a compliment nonetheless," Topher agreed.

"Well, we're voting for Tyler. He's just going to weigh the team down. You could still vote with us," DJ offered. "I know Courtney and Scott are angry at you for voting out Sam, but I think I could get them to forgive you."

Topher shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

DJ shrugged. "I had to try."

"For what it's worth, I will miss you," Topher told him. "You're very easy to talk to, and I do really appreciate you giving me advice about my situation with Sierra. Nobody else on our team would have done that."

"That does make me feel a little better," DJ told him.


At the Campfire Ceremony that night, Chris held his platter. "I have with me tonight six marshmallows," he said. "You all have cast your votes. Whoever does not receive a marshmallow-"

"Is forever eliminated from the competition. We know," a resigned DJ finished. "Just get on with it."

"Scarlett, you're safe. Courtney, Lindsay, you are also safe. Topher, and Scott, you are both going to see another day on this island.

"Tyler, you were terrible today. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that you single-handedly cost your team the win. DJ, you didn't really do anything wrong besides not being in Scarlett's alliance. The final marshmallow goes to...

"Tyler."

"Yeah, I saw it coming," DJ said. "Well, I'll see you all later. Scott, Courtney, good luck out there. You're gonna need it," he said, before boarding the Boat of Losers. The Boat sped away, and Chris turned back to the six remaining Bass.

"The rest of you are safe. For tonight."


At the cabins, some of the other campers were having a discussion. "And that's why you should all be reading The Dresden Files," Noah said to the others. "There's only one true great wizard named Harry, and his last name isn't Potter."

When the Bass returned, Tyler's presence and DJ's absence drew some confused looks. After nobody else said anything, B typed, "If nobody else is going to ask, I will. Why DJ?"

"Because team politics are the cause of eliminations now," Courtney replied. "It doesn't matter if you're completely useless, as long as the right people don't want you gone. Now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to bed."


Confessional: B

"Well, that's an idea I don't like. Glad I'm not on that team."

End confessional


This chapter was the hardest yet to write, and it's not nearly up to my usual standard. Honestly, I just haven't been feeling very inspired to write these characters lately, and I've also been busy with schoolwork, plus I've gotten very much into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and my point is, I may not update this story again until at least Thanksgiving break. I'm sorry; I know I used to have a very good update schedule, but it's just not working for me right now.

Thoughts on DJ? Well, in Island he was very likable. And while I might get some flak for saying this, I liked him in Action as well, despite his short run. I do find it believable that he would be getting homesick after being away from home for about three months, and it didn't take away from his character at all. Then World Tour happened, and he had quite possibly the worst case of flanderization on the show, including All-Stars. In any case, I think I made the reasoning behind his elimination clear.

Elimination order:

52: Dave, the Germaphobe

51: Staci, the Compulsive Liar

50: Dakota, the Fame-Monger

49: Sugar, the Pageant Queen

48: Amy, the Evil Twin

47: Leonard, the LARPer

46: Anne Maria, the Jersey Shore Reject

45: Izzy, the Psycho Hose Beast (still out there)

44: Rodney, the Lovesick Farm Boy

43: Max, the Super-Villain Wannabe

42: Jo, the Take-No-Prisoners Jockette

41: Ezekiel, the Homeschooled Guy

38 (Tie): Gwen, the Loner

38 (Tie): Dawn, the Moonchild

38 (Tie): Eva, the Hothead

37: Ella, the Fairytale Princess

36: Justin, the Eye Candy

35: Cody, the Flirty Geek

33 (tie): Mike, the Introspective

33 (tie): Aiden, the OC Hate Sink

32: Sadie, the other BFFFL

31: Beardo, the Human Soundboard

30: Sam, the Gamer

29: Sierra, the Super-fan

28: DJ, the Brickhouse with Heart